The present disclosure relates generally to techniques for utilizing exploded cell range references. Exploded cell range references, as used herein, refer to references to a range of cells that are noncontiguous.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Various types of applications, including spreadsheet applications, presentation applications, and word processing applications, may allow a user to generate and display data in the form of tables that includes rows and columns of cells. For example, a user may generate a table using a spreadsheet application in order to track or analyze a set of quantitative or qualitative data. Often an application may allow a user to define a formula within a cell that references other cells within a spreadsheet or table. For example, a formula entered into a cell of a table may reference other cells of that table or of other generated tables for values that are used, evaluated, or manipulated by the formula in question. For example, one cell may contain a formula for adding or otherwise mathematically manipulating a set of values that are defined in other cells or a range of cells of a table in a spreadsheet.
One consequence of such cell referencing is that a change to the respective table containing the referenced cells may have an inadvertent impact on a referencing formula. Changes affecting the layout or arrangement of an array of cells, such as by categorizing or grouping the cell data based on data commonalities, may result in formulas no longer referencing the cells intended by the user. When a table is updated or organized, such as by grouping or categorizing, the update may lead to a reorganization of cells or even additional rows and columns. For example, selected range of contiguous cells may no longer be contiguous when rearranged by a grouping organization. Unfortunately, changes to the given range of cells may inadvertently render one or more formulas incorrect by no longer referencing the cells originally specified in the formula.